There are two obvious flaws in the current health-care system in the United States.
First, through no fault of the individual companies, there is NO incentive for preventive care. Especially with ever-fewer 'cradle-to-grave' jobs out there, almost no one stays with the same provider for their whole life. So why would a company go to the expense of helping their customers stay healthy, insuring that the next insurance company collects premiums from healthy, and therefore profitable, customers, without making any preventive care investments of its own?
The second is definitely their fault: less payout means more profit. Not just by canceling policies or refusing coverage, but by making the process of receiving coverage so cumbersome to everyone involved. Imagine being as certain you were covered as you are that the premium will be automatically deducted from your paycheck, and that the paperwork were as easy.
At a minimum, these inherent flaws mean the current system cannot last, and as a functional portion of America's economy, has run its course.
Tuesday, June 23, 2009
Republicans, Iran, and North Korea
Republicans are whining that Obama, already "with too much on his table", should start interfering with the Iranian elections.
And do what, exactly? "Bomb, bomb, bomb! Bomb, bomb Iran!", to quote John McCain? And that's from the guy they wanted to lead the country and the free world. Schmucks.
Iranians are in a place that North Koreans only dream of, where elections are actually held, and more than one candidate is on the ballot. Of course, Iranians were in a similar position only 30 years ago. And thirty years from now, North Korea may have learned from the ayatollahs' mistakes.
In the meantime, how will America respond if, as FOX News works to gin up the fear, N. Korea actually succeeded in exporting or, worst, detonating a nuclear bomb somewhere in the world? Some few hundred of the millions in North Korea would have been in any way responsible.
But we can be sure that the Republicans, and the 28% of Americans who still take them seriously, will be screaming for us to "Bomb, bomb, bomb! Bomb, bomb North Korea!" And kill thousands that hate their leader as much as those FOX viewers do, or perhaps don't even know anything about anything happening anywhere else in the world, and think their horror-show of day-to-day life is the norm around the world.
Open hand first, iron fist last.
And do what, exactly? "Bomb, bomb, bomb! Bomb, bomb Iran!", to quote John McCain? And that's from the guy they wanted to lead the country and the free world. Schmucks.
Iranians are in a place that North Koreans only dream of, where elections are actually held, and more than one candidate is on the ballot. Of course, Iranians were in a similar position only 30 years ago. And thirty years from now, North Korea may have learned from the ayatollahs' mistakes.
In the meantime, how will America respond if, as FOX News works to gin up the fear, N. Korea actually succeeded in exporting or, worst, detonating a nuclear bomb somewhere in the world? Some few hundred of the millions in North Korea would have been in any way responsible.
But we can be sure that the Republicans, and the 28% of Americans who still take them seriously, will be screaming for us to "Bomb, bomb, bomb! Bomb, bomb North Korea!" And kill thousands that hate their leader as much as those FOX viewers do, or perhaps don't even know anything about anything happening anywhere else in the world, and think their horror-show of day-to-day life is the norm around the world.
Open hand first, iron fist last.
Sunday, June 21, 2009
Lesson 1: How NOT To Steal An Election
Amateurs!
If the Supreme Leader had waited two days after the election, and then announced that the returns gave Ahmadinijad 52%, Mousavi 43% and the rest of the contenders 5%, the losers would have grumbled and complained, but that would have been it. A plausible finish after a plausible period for the count.
The Grand Council and the Supreme leader could still have just pulled the results out of their rectitudes, but they'd have been accepted.
Instead, they got over-eager, and announced a ridiculously wide margin of victory before even Allah could have counted all the ballots.
Any good American politician could have warned them off. And there are plenty of unemployed but successful campaign consultants who'd have been happy to help in the theft of a national election, to the detriment of the nation and the world.
Katherine Harris and Ken Blackwell come to mind...
If the Supreme Leader had waited two days after the election, and then announced that the returns gave Ahmadinijad 52%, Mousavi 43% and the rest of the contenders 5%, the losers would have grumbled and complained, but that would have been it. A plausible finish after a plausible period for the count.
The Grand Council and the Supreme leader could still have just pulled the results out of their rectitudes, but they'd have been accepted.
Instead, they got over-eager, and announced a ridiculously wide margin of victory before even Allah could have counted all the ballots.
Any good American politician could have warned them off. And there are plenty of unemployed but successful campaign consultants who'd have been happy to help in the theft of a national election, to the detriment of the nation and the world.
Katherine Harris and Ken Blackwell come to mind...
The Return of the Peacock Throne
The reign of the CIA-installed Shah Reza Palahvi was one of violence-enforced adherence to the Shah's edicts, enforced by the Savak.
The Shah was overthrown by the youth of Iran rioting in the streets, overwhelming even the Iranian Army. Those students created a new, religious democracy, in their idealistic dream that religion would moderate the tendency towards dictatorship.
The Supreme Leader's actions f the past week have put the lie to those dreams, and while almost all the students in the streets this time are still Muslims, they have been taught, by the example of the dictatorship those earlier students now endorse, that this form of government doesn't work either.
Other than claiming his source of power from Allah instead of the CIA, there's little difference in the actions of the Supreme Leader, in his attempt to hold power.
The Shah's Peacock Throne, upon which the Supreme Leader now sits, may be replaced by the Green Revolt, or the Lipstick Revolution, but it will be replaced. More violence against the students will simply give more fodder to their cause, and less will be acquiescence to the revolution.
Either way, the legitimacy of the 30-year reign of rigid religious conservatism has run its course, and its lie is now seen not just outside the nation but within it as well.
Gosh. Sound like any other nation we know?
The Shah was overthrown by the youth of Iran rioting in the streets, overwhelming even the Iranian Army. Those students created a new, religious democracy, in their idealistic dream that religion would moderate the tendency towards dictatorship.
The Supreme Leader's actions f the past week have put the lie to those dreams, and while almost all the students in the streets this time are still Muslims, they have been taught, by the example of the dictatorship those earlier students now endorse, that this form of government doesn't work either.
Other than claiming his source of power from Allah instead of the CIA, there's little difference in the actions of the Supreme Leader, in his attempt to hold power.
The Shah's Peacock Throne, upon which the Supreme Leader now sits, may be replaced by the Green Revolt, or the Lipstick Revolution, but it will be replaced. More violence against the students will simply give more fodder to their cause, and less will be acquiescence to the revolution.
Either way, the legitimacy of the 30-year reign of rigid religious conservatism has run its course, and its lie is now seen not just outside the nation but within it as well.
Gosh. Sound like any other nation we know?
Friday, June 19, 2009
Health Insurance: The Easy Metric of Success
There's a very simple metric for the success of the Democratic Party's follow-through on the mandate of Health Care Reform from the 2006/20008 landslides.
By the 2010 mid-term elections, is there anyone in America who is uninsured?
Because if there is, America lost, and the ReagaNaziCorporation (RNC) won, and we should vote the Dems out just to remind them of their responsibility to represent us.
By the 2010 mid-term elections, is there anyone in America who is uninsured?
Because if there is, America lost, and the ReagaNaziCorporation (RNC) won, and we should vote the Dems out just to remind them of their responsibility to represent us.
Iran's Supreme Leader: "Suck Eggs!"
No, he didn't say it in those words, but how else should his two hour's of "Nothing to see here. Move along" be taken?
On the one hand, he told all the marchers that marching in the streets is no way to solve anything, hoping the older Iranians won't remind the younger ones that that's how he and his pals overthrew the Shah and came to power.
Instead, his reminder was that the way to change things is by elections. Like the one they just had, where the results were announced before the ballots could be counted. By a margin that no one believes, on either side of the election.
Which leaves exactly what options for the citizens of Iran? Shut up, sit down, take what we dish out. And be glad we don't come in the night and take you away, Allah be praised.
How exactly is this different from the reign of the Shah?
On the one hand, he told all the marchers that marching in the streets is no way to solve anything, hoping the older Iranians won't remind the younger ones that that's how he and his pals overthrew the Shah and came to power.
Instead, his reminder was that the way to change things is by elections. Like the one they just had, where the results were announced before the ballots could be counted. By a margin that no one believes, on either side of the election.
Which leaves exactly what options for the citizens of Iran? Shut up, sit down, take what we dish out. And be glad we don't come in the night and take you away, Allah be praised.
How exactly is this different from the reign of the Shah?
Tuesday, June 16, 2009
How George HW Bush Almost Died...
| Not in that silly tandem skydive last Friday to celebrate his umpty-umpth birthday. No, in the one on June 12, 2001. And not by accident. If Jeb hadn't stolen Florida for Dub-ya in 2001, removing Poppy would have become a preferable outcome to many of his associates to his continued breathing. See, '41', or 'HW', or 'Poppy', whatever you want to call him, knows where most of the bodies in DC are buried. From his days as the head of the CIA, to his ambassadorship to China at the beginning of our great sell-out to them, and then of course disappearing in mid-campaign in 1980, to chat it up with Iranians about arms-for-hostages (and for a Reagan Presidency) at the hotel the Ayatollah had stayed at until he and his students took American hostages for 444 days. Then, there's all the fixes he was involved in while he was 'out of the loop' on the culmination of the Iran-Contra deals he'd started back in Paris off the campign trail. No wonder he preemptively pardoned everyone in his Administration on the way out of town in January 1993. At that point, he still had clout in the GOP, and especially in the boardrooms of the companies that'd benefitted from his policies for so long. And with Coors and Bradley and Scaife money keeping Clinton pinned down defending Arkansas from Ted Olsen and the Elves, no one in the White House had a chance to look over the records from the Reagan-Bush years. After all, the real point of the Elves wasn't just to keep Clinton from moving forward, but also from looking back. But Poppy's power and influence began to fade after 8 years. But the toxicity of the secrets he knew couldn't fade. His conspirators were still in office, still in boardrooms, and of course, the chance that the truth about Reagan's election, as well as about Iran-Contra, ever sullying the Great Prevaricator's legend, could not be tolerated. So, in an act not just of holding power, but of self-preservation, Poppy maneuvered to get one of his boys (the two that don't have felony convictions) elected president, from either Texas (Dub-ya) or preferably Jeb in Florida. Think how horribly wrong the seating of Gore would have been for Poppy, with Florida the electoral tie-breaker. Dub-ya becomes a political non-entity for at least eight years, maybe forever after his petulance at his loss makes the national papers. And the fact Jeb couldn't deliver his own state to his brother, his family, his party, would have ended his political future in the GOP right there. The presidentcy of Al Gore, despised by all Republicans, and supported by a majority of the voters, would be laid squarely at the door of the Bush family. Leaving no more favors to hand out, either from a former president or his two governor-sons. And while his sons didn't know anything about Poppy's backroom dealings, Poppy would have needed to be taken out before he let anyone in on those goings-on, as some sort of life insurance. Which is why I would have bought a ticket to that tandem jump in June 2001 if Dub-ya hadn't been coronated. And which is why the Poppy fought so hard from the back room to get his boy coronated when he didn't win. It was a matter of life and death. |
Sunday, June 14, 2009
Well, so much for GalaxyQuest.
Friday was the end of analog video broadcasts in the United States. And while many nay-sayers are now taking great pleasure in pointing out the millions of Americans that no longer have any television service, who will speak for the aliens?
I will.
No, not the ever-present, lurking menace of illegal aliens, always the #1 problem on right-wing radio. No, I speak of the interstellar aliens, off-worlders who will, some day in about 26 years or so, suddenly find that all those re-runs of Lucy and Star Trek and The Simpsons suddenly have stopped.
Those transmissions traveled farther, faster, than any satellite carrying gold disks of sounds or naked pictures of our species. And they are now, or some years in the future, some light-years away, turned off, with less fanfare than any dying star.
Oh, well. At least they can still get broadcast radio: baseball, NPR and Rush Limbaugh.
And we wonder why they never communicate with us...
I will.
No, not the ever-present, lurking menace of illegal aliens, always the #1 problem on right-wing radio. No, I speak of the interstellar aliens, off-worlders who will, some day in about 26 years or so, suddenly find that all those re-runs of Lucy and Star Trek and The Simpsons suddenly have stopped.
Those transmissions traveled farther, faster, than any satellite carrying gold disks of sounds or naked pictures of our species. And they are now, or some years in the future, some light-years away, turned off, with less fanfare than any dying star.
Oh, well. At least they can still get broadcast radio: baseball, NPR and Rush Limbaugh.
And we wonder why they never communicate with us...
"Start Again!"
This blog has been dormant for quite a while, as I was busy >ha!< during the last election.
Since then, I've been trying to decide whether to return here, or just leave it, another of the millions of blogs abandoned every year, for lack of diligence, for lack of something to say, or overtaken by newer technology.
So, as is evident from this post, I'm back. Here's why. The voices in my head won't shut-up.
There's the vociferous hater of Republicans, often the loudest and longest-winded(!). There's the tech geek, agog at what science discovers and engineers invent.
The comedian calls back to the humor of the past to inform the events in the news.
And then there's the analyst, always rolling problems and situations over and over, trying to find a new and better solution, or pry apart a system to find its flaw.
Eugene Volokh wrote once that a successful blog should stay focused on one subject, and that its postings should be relatively short.
I've considered having a blog for each of these voices, to prevent readers from having to wade through them to find the subjects they want.
But for simplicity's sake, I'll simply label the voices, and the reader can fallow the ones of interest to them...
But first, I am called to dinner. And 'cause my wife is a great cook, I'm never late for dinner.
Since then, I've been trying to decide whether to return here, or just leave it, another of the millions of blogs abandoned every year, for lack of diligence, for lack of something to say, or overtaken by newer technology.
So, as is evident from this post, I'm back. Here's why. The voices in my head won't shut-up.
There's the vociferous hater of Republicans, often the loudest and longest-winded(!). There's the tech geek, agog at what science discovers and engineers invent.
The comedian calls back to the humor of the past to inform the events in the news.
And then there's the analyst, always rolling problems and situations over and over, trying to find a new and better solution, or pry apart a system to find its flaw.
Eugene Volokh wrote once that a successful blog should stay focused on one subject, and that its postings should be relatively short.
I've considered having a blog for each of these voices, to prevent readers from having to wade through them to find the subjects they want.
But for simplicity's sake, I'll simply label the voices, and the reader can fallow the ones of interest to them...
But first, I am called to dinner. And 'cause my wife is a great cook, I'm never late for dinner.
Tuesday, March 18, 2008
Take Back America Conference: Day 2
The morning plenary was Bob Borosage hosting a panel of Julian Bond, Jesse jackson & Taylor Branch discussing the legacy of King and the Civil Rights Movement. My sister, who's sofa is my hotel this week, wanted to hear about Donna Brazile, whom she blames for both the 20000 and 2004 debacles, but Julian Bond was a sub speaker. No show, no explanation. And s much as I like Jesse Jackson
I'm writing now from a session on the Rogue Presidency, including David Cole, a regular witness at the House JudiciaryComm, and John Conyers, House Judiciary Chair (who got hung up in traffic,) and Christ Hardin Smith, who blogs on constitutional matters for FireDogLake.
Christy Hardin Smith, FireDogLake:"Giving up our rights doesn't make us more safe, it just makes us less free"
John Conyers refers back to Gingrich's "Contract ON America" (the phrase I've been using since 1994, thank you)as the start of the current attitude of the Republicans toward the presidency. (I'd think it goes back at least to Nixon.) He's now remarking on his committee's report, "What Went Wrong In Ohio" about the 2004 election, and the invitation (and threat of subpoena) issued by the Committee to former Sec. o' State Blackwell, who was responsible for that disaster.
Conyers says he isn't hopeful about the rulings of the current Supreme Court, and that the most important thing between now and November is voting integrity.
More later..I want to listen.
I'm writing now from a session on the Rogue Presidency, including David Cole, a regular witness at the House JudiciaryComm, and John Conyers, House Judiciary Chair (who got hung up in traffic,) and Christ Hardin Smith, who blogs on constitutional matters for FireDogLake.
Christy Hardin Smith, FireDogLake:"Giving up our rights doesn't make us more safe, it just makes us less free"
John Conyers refers back to Gingrich's "Contract ON America" (the phrase I've been using since 1994, thank you)as the start of the current attitude of the Republicans toward the presidency. (I'd think it goes back at least to Nixon.) He's now remarking on his committee's report, "What Went Wrong In Ohio" about the 2004 election, and the invitation (and threat of subpoena) issued by the Committee to former Sec. o' State Blackwell, who was responsible for that disaster.
Conyers says he isn't hopeful about the rulings of the current Supreme Court, and that the most important thing between now and November is voting integrity.
More later..I want to listen.
Finishing Conyers' session
Quick note: after spending some time trying to explain why there won't be an impeachment before the election (because "it would jeopardize the chance of a young, excellent man running for the White House") Conyers made two unusual statements. First, that there were already ample examples of crimes that Cheney ("the brains of the operation") and Bush had committed crimes they could be convicted for in both US criminal courts and in Int'l War Crimes tribunals, which could still end up with them being held responsible for their actions...
And second, that Conyers and several other members of Congress (no names mentioned) had sent Bush a letter saying that if he goes into Iran, he will be impeached.
Well, there's no hedging that statement...
And second, that Conyers and several other members of Congress (no names mentioned) had sent Bush a letter saying that if he goes into Iran, he will be impeached.
Well, there's no hedging that statement...
Wednesday, January 09, 2008
The Obama Surge - a media product?
(Been a while, but it's gonna be wild from here on out. Strap in)
Last night, Hillary Clinton beat Obama in New Hampshire. And everyone, especially the progressive wing of my party, is trying to figure out why Obama had to give a great concession speech last night, five days after getting to give a great victory speech after the Iowa caucuses (caucii?) And everyone is WAY over-analyzing the 'flip.'
I usually eschew (gesundheit) simple explanations for apparently complicated situations (and simple solutions to complicated problems.) But this one seems easy.
Until two weeks ago, no Republican candidate, no FOX pundit, and barely any other media face, spoke any Democratic candidates' name but 'Hillary.' In several Republican debates, they never even said 'Bush.' This feels like marching to the tune from Grover and Karl, too coordinated to be accidental.
WHY Hillary? Because they (GOP) calculate that America won't vote for a woman, even the Virgin mary, much less Hillary. So all focus was on her.
Imagine their wet dream come true, the hope they dared not hope at the RNC, when Obama won Iowa. And now, all focus is on Obama, win or lose in the primaries. WHY? because, in the mind of the GOP, the only thing easier to beat that a white woman is a black man.
They'll never even have to mention it, to place the race or gender card, (like Coulter calling Edwards a 'faggot.')becaue every time either of these candidates is seen, their 'difference' is evident to the GOP electorate.
I hate that America is still held hostage by the misogymistic racists whose parents committed treason back in the 1860's. Can't we let them out now? Other than Coca-cola and Cape Kennedy, they can all fall into the Gulf of Mexico...
Watch for Edwards v. McCain
Last night, Hillary Clinton beat Obama in New Hampshire. And everyone, especially the progressive wing of my party, is trying to figure out why Obama had to give a great concession speech last night, five days after getting to give a great victory speech after the Iowa caucuses (caucii?) And everyone is WAY over-analyzing the 'flip.'
I usually eschew (gesundheit) simple explanations for apparently complicated situations (and simple solutions to complicated problems.) But this one seems easy.
Until two weeks ago, no Republican candidate, no FOX pundit, and barely any other media face, spoke any Democratic candidates' name but 'Hillary.' In several Republican debates, they never even said 'Bush.' This feels like marching to the tune from Grover and Karl, too coordinated to be accidental.
WHY Hillary? Because they (GOP) calculate that America won't vote for a woman, even the Virgin mary, much less Hillary. So all focus was on her.
Imagine their wet dream come true, the hope they dared not hope at the RNC, when Obama won Iowa. And now, all focus is on Obama, win or lose in the primaries. WHY? because, in the mind of the GOP, the only thing easier to beat that a white woman is a black man.
They'll never even have to mention it, to place the race or gender card, (like Coulter calling Edwards a 'faggot.')becaue every time either of these candidates is seen, their 'difference' is evident to the GOP electorate.
I hate that America is still held hostage by the misogymistic racists whose parents committed treason back in the 1860's. Can't we let them out now? Other than Coca-cola and Cape Kennedy, they can all fall into the Gulf of Mexico...
Watch for Edwards v. McCain
Tuesday, June 19, 2007
Obama vs Edwards, speech-wise
I'm at Campaign For America's Future's annual "Take Back America" Conference. Three thousand progressives, several dozen sessions, on policy and the practical side of campaigning. And 'the candidates' are here.
Just got out of the pre-lunch session in the main ballroom, Obama followed by Edwards, each running about 30 minutes. I was a delegate to the California Dem Convention in April, and saw each of them, and all the others, there, also. But not back-to-back, not to the same craowd at almost the same time. I'm just ending a year as the president of my Toastmasters Club, and as such I do speeches or speaker evaulations several times each week. This was an experiment in style, and I tried to do a side-by-side comparison.
Obama and Edwards both have a populist style of speechifying. They tell heartwrenching stories and give absolutist pronouncements. They use the string-of-examples-in-the-same-format that develop rolling waves of applause and get the crowd on their feet. And their comfort levels,both with their material and with the crowd, are comparable, and a hge improvement over Junior's discomfort at stringing two sentences together.
But here's the most important difference I've seen so far. Obama is speaking to a crowd. Edwards is talking to each person individually. Obama is speechifying, Edwards is talking to me over the fence. Obama is sticking almost exactly to his speech, while Edwards veered off to 'today' twice, extempore. I only noticed about a one-percent diff from the April speeches in CA for either. But I felt like I was hearing Edwards for the first time, not the third, while I'd already heard Obama's speech.
Maybe this is good for Obama. He's still a new item, unlike Edwards, whom we all saw a lot of in 2004. So Obama's speech, its' 'Turn The Page' mantra sticking in people's heads, may work in his favor. He packed the largest ballroom at the Washington Hilton, literally overflowing into the foyer. Maybe 10-15% left when he did, rather than stay and hear Edwards. So there's an energy for Obama that Edwards may not have anymore. But hell, Obama may not have it either, by the time the primaries actually arrive...NEXT YEAR!
But Edwards got huge applause as often as Obama, and the two folks sitting net to me, sold on Obama at the end of his speech, were equally sold on Edwards at his finish, both repeating his take-away lines/concepts: "That's Not Who We Are!"/"We're Better Than This" after examples of Republican failings, and still-existing problems.
The GOP is envious. The Dems are suffering from a wealth of riches, candidate-wise. The GOP looks at their ten dwarves and weeps.
Hillary tomorrow, 8AM
Just got out of the pre-lunch session in the main ballroom, Obama followed by Edwards, each running about 30 minutes. I was a delegate to the California Dem Convention in April, and saw each of them, and all the others, there, also. But not back-to-back, not to the same craowd at almost the same time. I'm just ending a year as the president of my Toastmasters Club, and as such I do speeches or speaker evaulations several times each week. This was an experiment in style, and I tried to do a side-by-side comparison.
Obama and Edwards both have a populist style of speechifying. They tell heartwrenching stories and give absolutist pronouncements. They use the string-of-examples-in-the-same-format that develop rolling waves of applause and get the crowd on their feet. And their comfort levels,both with their material and with the crowd, are comparable, and a hge improvement over Junior's discomfort at stringing two sentences together.
But here's the most important difference I've seen so far. Obama is speaking to a crowd. Edwards is talking to each person individually. Obama is speechifying, Edwards is talking to me over the fence. Obama is sticking almost exactly to his speech, while Edwards veered off to 'today' twice, extempore. I only noticed about a one-percent diff from the April speeches in CA for either. But I felt like I was hearing Edwards for the first time, not the third, while I'd already heard Obama's speech.
Maybe this is good for Obama. He's still a new item, unlike Edwards, whom we all saw a lot of in 2004. So Obama's speech, its' 'Turn The Page' mantra sticking in people's heads, may work in his favor. He packed the largest ballroom at the Washington Hilton, literally overflowing into the foyer. Maybe 10-15% left when he did, rather than stay and hear Edwards. So there's an energy for Obama that Edwards may not have anymore. But hell, Obama may not have it either, by the time the primaries actually arrive...NEXT YEAR!
But Edwards got huge applause as often as Obama, and the two folks sitting net to me, sold on Obama at the end of his speech, were equally sold on Edwards at his finish, both repeating his take-away lines/concepts: "That's Not Who We Are!"/"We're Better Than This" after examples of Republican failings, and still-existing problems.
The GOP is envious. The Dems are suffering from a wealth of riches, candidate-wise. The GOP looks at their ten dwarves and weeps.
Hillary tomorrow, 8AM
Wednesday, May 23, 2007
Monica gets no immunity from the GOP
Listening to Monica Goodling's immunized testimony today shows how far the Republican Party has fallen. Because even with immunity, she's living in 'I don't know'-land. And that's because there's no one left in the GOP to give her immunity from political retribution for telling the truth. If she actually tells the truth she'll never have another job. Rightfully, no Democratic-leaning operation would have her, and she'd be radioactive to any Republican-connected operation, especially after the abuse Tom DeLay's "K Street" project put them through. And there is no respectable, ethical faction left in the Republican Party, willing to accept the fact of the crimes of this Administration and others in the administration of the current Republican party.
It's a damning thing that the government's immunity can be trumped by the oath of Olmerta taken by members high and low in the criminal operation known as the GOP.
It's a damning thing that the government's immunity can be trumped by the oath of Olmerta taken by members high and low in the criminal operation known as the GOP.
Monday, May 07, 2007
How and Why Regulations Are Born: An Evolution Lesson
Republicans always whine about all these laws and regulations that keep them from being able to ignore everyone but themselves. The correct response is,"Because we tried it without those regulations, and you and your friends almost killed or bankrupted us, that's why." And because they didn't live through the world as it was before those regs, and because they have the imagination God gave a salt shaker, they don't get it.
So let's watch it happen all over again, in a whole new arena, for the same damned reasons it ever happens: greed, collusion and theft. I'm talking about the widening Student Loan Financing disaster. We relied on the ethics of the financial officers and boards of the universities. We relied on the integrity of the bankers. We were fools, again. They took our trust and literally laughed all the way to the bank, leaving teenagers, teenagers!! holding the bag. One is my youngest niece, who starts college this fall.
As always, add a pinch of Bush-Crony Incompetence. Jon Oberg, a high-ranking staff researcher at the Dept of Education reported on federal subsidies supporting loan-pushing collusion back in 2003 and recommended action to stop it. Two different Secs of Education, both Bush loyalists from Texas, told him, 'Go work on getting us some grant money. We have no power to change the situation.' Then add a dash of Congressional Oversight, when, in January, faced with a suddenly-Democratic Congress, the Dept of Education ended these subsidies...with a single letter to the lenders. And began an investigation.
This is the cycle that creates regulation: a small problem becomes larger, comes to the attention of experts, who warn the players, who ignore the warnings because 'it's not illegal, so the morality is irrelevant'. When it finally comes to the attention of the general public, first they rear back in horror, then they rise up in anger, and demand that the law match their sense of fairness.
This is one way Democrats are created.
So let's watch it happen all over again, in a whole new arena, for the same damned reasons it ever happens: greed, collusion and theft. I'm talking about the widening Student Loan Financing disaster. We relied on the ethics of the financial officers and boards of the universities. We relied on the integrity of the bankers. We were fools, again. They took our trust and literally laughed all the way to the bank, leaving teenagers, teenagers!! holding the bag. One is my youngest niece, who starts college this fall.
As always, add a pinch of Bush-Crony Incompetence. Jon Oberg, a high-ranking staff researcher at the Dept of Education reported on federal subsidies supporting loan-pushing collusion back in 2003 and recommended action to stop it. Two different Secs of Education, both Bush loyalists from Texas, told him, 'Go work on getting us some grant money. We have no power to change the situation.' Then add a dash of Congressional Oversight, when, in January, faced with a suddenly-Democratic Congress, the Dept of Education ended these subsidies...with a single letter to the lenders. And began an investigation.
This is the cycle that creates regulation: a small problem becomes larger, comes to the attention of experts, who warn the players, who ignore the warnings because 'it's not illegal, so the morality is irrelevant'. When it finally comes to the attention of the general public, first they rear back in horror, then they rise up in anger, and demand that the law match their sense of fairness.
This is one way Democrats are created.
Tuesday, January 02, 2007
Apocalypto Redux
Sometime today, like an Aztec king sharpening the dagger he'll use to remove beating hearts from living subjects to appease the gods, Junior will announce the need for more sacrifice, in the name of burnishing his name.
He'll sacrifice our military, not just our soldiers.
He'll sacrifice our reputation, not just his.
He'll sacrifice our dreams, not his fantasy.
He'll sacrifice our future, because he has none.
This sacrifice will be made by the soldiers he sends to the slaughter.
This sacrifice will be made by their families, whose hearts will be ripped from them, in many cases forever.
This sacrifice will be made by their children, who will spend their lives and their childrens' lives paying for the privilege.
This sacrifice will not be made by the 'haves and have-mores' who are the king's base.
This sacrifice will not be made by American industry, which continues to build gas-guzzlers and video games, instead of electric vehicles and solar panels.
This sacrifice will not be made by you or me, who will find all the gas we want at the corner station.
What a relief that he told us to go shopping instead.
Got your Christmas gift cards?
Let's go!
He'll sacrifice our military, not just our soldiers.
He'll sacrifice our reputation, not just his.
He'll sacrifice our dreams, not his fantasy.
He'll sacrifice our future, because he has none.
This sacrifice will be made by the soldiers he sends to the slaughter.
This sacrifice will be made by their families, whose hearts will be ripped from them, in many cases forever.
This sacrifice will be made by their children, who will spend their lives and their childrens' lives paying for the privilege.
This sacrifice will not be made by the 'haves and have-mores' who are the king's base.
This sacrifice will not be made by American industry, which continues to build gas-guzzlers and video games, instead of electric vehicles and solar panels.
This sacrifice will not be made by you or me, who will find all the gas we want at the corner station.
What a relief that he told us to go shopping instead.
Got your Christmas gift cards?
Let's go!
Thursday, November 09, 2006
Listen...in the distance...a funeral
Listen. In the distance, the sound of a funeral march. But not the usual, brass-and-drums version played in New Orleans. No, this is The Washington Republican Dirge, played on shredding machines, with a whining choir. Security paper services, the ones that take away those rollaway bins lurking in the corner of every office in Washington, are working overtime, and hiring extra crews. Even the White House, especially over at Dick's office, has turned off the heat and cranked up the A/C to offset the heat the industrial-grade shredders are throwing off, as White House staffers, in shorts and shirtsleeves, throw ream after ream into the maws of those shredders. There are even a few, at both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue, that can grind almost anything into unrecognizeable pulp. Hard drives, CDs, thumbdrives, even framed photos of Abramoff, Cunningham, Ney, Hussein, even Rumsfeld, all the evidence goes into the hoppers, to become fuel for alternative-energy generators.
"In the meantime" now becomes a literal designator of the next sixty-some days, the official name of the last throes of this Republican Congress. And in this mean time, expect to see some of the ugliest behaviors, in service of ramming through the most extreme bills. Constitutional ban on abortion, make Bush's tax handouts permanent, more hand-off of legislative and constitutional powers to the executive, any an all are possible, even probable. And the floors of the House and Senate are going to make Hormel's rendering plants look pristine. Republicans are mean masters, and sorer losers, and they'll do everything they can to take their ball, OUR Constitution, home with them when they have to leave.
To any and all that can get near to these operations: Take picture, get copies, record conversations. Keep "contemporaneous journals," as both the FBI and IRS call them, because they can be used in evidence, even when the original evidence has been ground up, hauled away, and used for fuel or landfill.
Because America is doomed to let these fascists back in, if we don't learn exactly what they did, and hold them publicly accountable in such an extreme way that NO ONE will ever dare try steal America from its citizens again.
Treason is a hanging offense, and I wouldn't mind a few hangings. (Names available on request.)
"In the meantime" now becomes a literal designator of the next sixty-some days, the official name of the last throes of this Republican Congress. And in this mean time, expect to see some of the ugliest behaviors, in service of ramming through the most extreme bills. Constitutional ban on abortion, make Bush's tax handouts permanent, more hand-off of legislative and constitutional powers to the executive, any an all are possible, even probable. And the floors of the House and Senate are going to make Hormel's rendering plants look pristine. Republicans are mean masters, and sorer losers, and they'll do everything they can to take their ball, OUR Constitution, home with them when they have to leave.
To any and all that can get near to these operations: Take picture, get copies, record conversations. Keep "contemporaneous journals," as both the FBI and IRS call them, because they can be used in evidence, even when the original evidence has been ground up, hauled away, and used for fuel or landfill.
Because America is doomed to let these fascists back in, if we don't learn exactly what they did, and hold them publicly accountable in such an extreme way that NO ONE will ever dare try steal America from its citizens again.
Treason is a hanging offense, and I wouldn't mind a few hangings. (Names available on request.)
Monday, October 30, 2006
ARVN, anyone?
As more Republicans, in the electoral fights of their lives, find themselves facing the hard choices in Iraq, of either ramping up our manpower or 'redeploying' it, more and more of them are finding some refuge in the GOP line about training and supplying an Iraqi Army to replace our personnel there. As Junior puts it, so eloquently that you know someone wrote it for him, "As the Iraqi Army stands up, we'll stand down."
I've got a one-word answer to these weasel-words: ARVN. Army of the Republic of Viet Nam. Look it up. The parallels are so eerie, and obvious, that I'm amazed that no one's made this connection.
And as we continue to build the largest, most barricaded US Embassy in the history of the world, right there in downtown Baghdad, I remember a joke from National Lampoon, from that period that Junior avoided, both in service and in lessons.
What do you call 2500 people hanging from a helicopter?
Our orderly retreat from Viet Nam.
Iraq: Viet Nam Redux.
I've got a one-word answer to these weasel-words: ARVN. Army of the Republic of Viet Nam. Look it up. The parallels are so eerie, and obvious, that I'm amazed that no one's made this connection.
And as we continue to build the largest, most barricaded US Embassy in the history of the world, right there in downtown Baghdad, I remember a joke from National Lampoon, from that period that Junior avoided, both in service and in lessons.
What do you call 2500 people hanging from a helicopter?
Our orderly retreat from Viet Nam.
Iraq: Viet Nam Redux.
Monday, October 16, 2006
Mark, Laura, Denny and the Cardinal
OK, everyone's weighed in on this Foley affair, some pretty despicably. What did you expect from Republicans?
The farthest-out was the plaintive squeal from ditto-heads that Ted Kennedy was still in office, killer that he was. God, they go for their last argument first. So boring. I'm not going to compare an single accident to a ten-year pattern of behavior, or 40 years ago to here and now. Naw. I'll drop my murder-bomb: why is Laura Bush still in the White House?
Granted, most of the gang-bangers Laura's supposed to be mentoring should be listening to her, but only because she's a killer, something most of them haven't gotten to...yet. Don't believe me? Look it up. Welcome to the reality-based world.
Moving on. Do Dennis Hastert and the Republican leadership in the House remind anyone else of Cardinal Mahoney, Cardinal Law and the rest of the American Catholic prelate? Pages, choir boys, what's the difference? Moving their priests and congressmen around, just to maintain their power and avoid scandals. Maybe this is that convergence of Protestant evangelists and the Catholic priesthood that the Republicans have been working on. Big Tent. Just don't look inside. "Deliver Us From Evil" is in theaters now. But does that title refer to the Catholic priesthood or the Republican Party?
Finally, the two Foley talking points Republicans seem to have settled into are the following:
One, "It's a vast, Soros-financed conspiracy...that we got caught with our pants down, masturbating while e-mailing, right before an election." Yet the left-wing can't get Soros to write a measly check to keep AirAmerica financed. Face it, the left ain't that well organized.
And two, "See, this is what homosexuality leads to: wanting sex with teenage boys." This is a personal favorite of the evangelical loonies of Dobson, Robertson and Falwell. They ignore that the same logic implies heterosexual Christianity leads to shooting 10-year-old Christian girls in their schoolrooms because otherwise the killer will want to molest them.
The scandal isn't that a Congressman was diddling teenage boys or girls (I'm waiting for that shoe to drop.) The scandal is that all evidence says that the Republicans have known, for YEARS, about this situation, and always relied on fear to deal with the problem. Fear of the congressman being outed. Fear of the pages being blackballed from politics for reporting this. Fear of the homosexuals in the RNC and the House leadership being accused of being pedophiles.
So Republican. "We have nothing to use but fear itself."
The farthest-out was the plaintive squeal from ditto-heads that Ted Kennedy was still in office, killer that he was. God, they go for their last argument first. So boring. I'm not going to compare an single accident to a ten-year pattern of behavior, or 40 years ago to here and now. Naw. I'll drop my murder-bomb: why is Laura Bush still in the White House?
Granted, most of the gang-bangers Laura's supposed to be mentoring should be listening to her, but only because she's a killer, something most of them haven't gotten to...yet. Don't believe me? Look it up. Welcome to the reality-based world.
Moving on. Do Dennis Hastert and the Republican leadership in the House remind anyone else of Cardinal Mahoney, Cardinal Law and the rest of the American Catholic prelate? Pages, choir boys, what's the difference? Moving their priests and congressmen around, just to maintain their power and avoid scandals. Maybe this is that convergence of Protestant evangelists and the Catholic priesthood that the Republicans have been working on. Big Tent. Just don't look inside. "Deliver Us From Evil" is in theaters now. But does that title refer to the Catholic priesthood or the Republican Party?
Finally, the two Foley talking points Republicans seem to have settled into are the following:
One, "It's a vast, Soros-financed conspiracy...that we got caught with our pants down, masturbating while e-mailing, right before an election." Yet the left-wing can't get Soros to write a measly check to keep AirAmerica financed. Face it, the left ain't that well organized.
And two, "See, this is what homosexuality leads to: wanting sex with teenage boys." This is a personal favorite of the evangelical loonies of Dobson, Robertson and Falwell. They ignore that the same logic implies heterosexual Christianity leads to shooting 10-year-old Christian girls in their schoolrooms because otherwise the killer will want to molest them.
The scandal isn't that a Congressman was diddling teenage boys or girls (I'm waiting for that shoe to drop.) The scandal is that all evidence says that the Republicans have known, for YEARS, about this situation, and always relied on fear to deal with the problem. Fear of the congressman being outed. Fear of the pages being blackballed from politics for reporting this. Fear of the homosexuals in the RNC and the House leadership being accused of being pedophiles.
So Republican. "We have nothing to use but fear itself."
Thursday, September 07, 2006
A newer mini-series at ABC
A new mini-series is in production at ABC, based in part on a report of findings from Senate hearings into past Administration actions. The docu-drama also draws interviews with participants, news reports and books. Several Administration figures have written ABC to object to their portrayals, and to the fictional events that appear in the drama.
"People won't be able to tell where the truth stops and the lies start," complained Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales, who is portrayed in one scene hanging up on a CIA agent who is complaining about contractors using water-boarding and electric shock on detainees at a secret CIA prison in Romania. Gonzales said further, "And at no time did President Bush say 'I don't care if they're dead after we get the info, as long as we get it!' "
VP Cheney has written an op-ed piece denouncing the portrayal of him making several phone calls to Kellogg, Brown and Root, a subsidiary of his former company, Halliburton, assuring them they will get all the reconstruction contracts once the war in Iraq starts, and his ordering his Chief of Staff, in a meeting with Karl Rove, to shut down the CIA's monitoring program of Iran's nuclear effort by exposing an undercover CIA agent. "It's a two-fer," his character says in the mini-series' scene. "We discredit Wilson on Iraq's nuclear program, and we keep the CIA blind to Iran's. Hell, we can use the same Powerpoint slideshow again at the UN."
The mini-series, "Inside Bush's Secret Prisons" was written by one of Al Franken's close friends.
Hope Hartman, ABC spokesperson said that, as with another, similar series, this one will be broadcast without commercials, as a public service.
And no, she was not being ironic.
"People won't be able to tell where the truth stops and the lies start," complained Atty. Gen. Alberto Gonzales, who is portrayed in one scene hanging up on a CIA agent who is complaining about contractors using water-boarding and electric shock on detainees at a secret CIA prison in Romania. Gonzales said further, "And at no time did President Bush say 'I don't care if they're dead after we get the info, as long as we get it!' "
VP Cheney has written an op-ed piece denouncing the portrayal of him making several phone calls to Kellogg, Brown and Root, a subsidiary of his former company, Halliburton, assuring them they will get all the reconstruction contracts once the war in Iraq starts, and his ordering his Chief of Staff, in a meeting with Karl Rove, to shut down the CIA's monitoring program of Iran's nuclear effort by exposing an undercover CIA agent. "It's a two-fer," his character says in the mini-series' scene. "We discredit Wilson on Iraq's nuclear program, and we keep the CIA blind to Iran's. Hell, we can use the same Powerpoint slideshow again at the UN."
The mini-series, "Inside Bush's Secret Prisons" was written by one of Al Franken's close friends.
Hope Hartman, ABC spokesperson said that, as with another, similar series, this one will be broadcast without commercials, as a public service.
And no, she was not being ironic.
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